1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network device which operates in two modes: a list manager mode for maintaining a list of device addresses for devices on the network, and a slave mode for providing a device address of the network device to another device on the network which maintains such a list.
2. Description of the Related Art
Originally, local area networks (LANs) relied on a centralized file server to access files on the LAN. Such LANs also used the centralized file server to maintain a list of device addresses for various devices on a network. Through the centralized file server, the various network devices were able to retrieve a device address for a device on the LAN, and access the device using the device address.
More recent LANs, such as those using an IP or a NETBIOS protocol (e.g., the Microsoft.RTM. Windows95 network), do not rely on a centralized file server for access to files. While the elimination of a centralized file server provides advantages for such LANs, it has also provided at least one drawback. That is, since there is no centralized file server on such a LAN, there is no centralized area on the LAN which stores device addresses for the LAN. As a result, a network device on the LAN may have difficulty retrieving a current address for a device on the LAN.
One conventional solution to the foregoing problem is to provide a centralized address server to maintain a list of device addresses for a LAN. Such a solution is used in the LDAP protocol. This solution, however, introduces an additional file server onto the LAN, thereby increasing both the cost and the complexity of the LAN.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a system of maintaining a list of device addresses for a LAN which does not require the addition of a separate server to the LAN.